DJS 150th Anniversary
From January 2025, we will celebrate our school being 150 years old.
1910 photograph of Dronfield Council School before School Lane was built with houses. The bell tower was still in place at the time of the photograph although it was later demolished for safety reasons. The school was built in 1875 as a Board School and became a Council School in 1903 when Board Schools were abolished.
2025 photograph of Dronfield Junior School.
The History of the School
Setting up the School
England's first Education Act of 1870 took the initial step towards making education free and compulsory for all children in the country. School Boards were to be set up in areas where there were not enough voluntary schools ‘to fill the gaps’.
On 23rd March 1871 the School Board for Dronfield met for the first time in the Town Hall. They appointed a Mr George to report on the schools in the area, and to go round from house to house to find out how many children there were. He was paid £4 for his services.
In July 1871 Mr George reported that there were 181 children between the ages of 3 and 5, and 628 children between the ages of 5 and 13 resident within the parish.
The only schools regarded as suitable were the National School with 102 pupils and the Lower School in the Grammar School with 125 pupils. (There were other schools run by Miss Cole, Miss Wildgoose and Miss Stock, but these were regarded as damp, dark, inefficient or too expensive.)
There were, therefore, 582 children without school places. With Wilson and Cammell building a gigantic new steelworks, there would be more families coming into the area.
It was decided to build a school for 600 boys and girls, with a house for the master. Land was purchased at Cross Lane. The total cost of building the school was £6,051.
Opening the school
On 2nd May 1875, the Board advertised for a master and mistress for Cross Lane Schools, and on Friday June 19th 1875 Mr Thomas Gledhill and his wife were appointed. The salary of the headmaster was to be £110 per year with ‘use of rates, coals and gas supplied by the Board’ and the headmistress was to be paid £60.
On Monday 13th September the schools opened, and 84 boys and 77 girls were admitted on the first day. To mark the occasion a concert was held in the evening, reserved seats 1/- (5p) and others 6d. 150 unframed slates were ordered for the children to write on and desks were ordered at a cost of £244.
A school 'bobby' Mr Richards of Dronfield was appointed at a salary of £50 p.a.
Sarah Jane Stanton, Frances Rotherham and Betsy Smelt were appointed as pupil teachers at a salary of £5 p.a. and F W Ibbotson at £8 p.a.
Children had to pay to come to school - the fees at the time were 4d (2p) per week for children of 11 with half timers paying 2d (1p) per week. Children continued to pay until 1891 when fees were abolished in all elementary schools.
Photographs from Across the Years
Photograph circa early 1950s of Maypole Dancing
1943 photograph of a Derbyshire County Council Ambulance vehicle outside Dronfield Junior School. Sandbags protecting the building can be seen
L to R: Ernest Green, Gervase Milner, Eileen Greaves and Doris Proctor
2012 photograph of DJS
